AFCB are still playing catch up

While The Cherries three points at Newcastle has lifted them out of the bottom three this season, they are still going to have to pick up a few more wins in November to pull themselves a head of what they were achieving at the start of last season.

The good news is that AFCB are level with what they were managing in 2015-16 and they still have three more matches yet to play this month, which is well and good because December has been a month of fantastic results in the last two seasons and AFCB will do well to match those kind of results this time around. Last season AFCB had reached 15 points by December and there is every reason to believe a similar or better total might be reached by this December.

Can the Cherries keep their upward momentum going?

After the draw against Leicester City, I  estimated that the Cherries would need five wins from their next 10 games to get to almost the half way point in the season with a good chance of avoiding being involved in a relegation scrap, and so far they have picked up two more wins from four games and another three wins from six would put them on 19 points from 17 games. Of course, we want AFCB to do even better than that, but 24 points is the best the club has ever had on the board going into January, the lowest was 20 points in 2015-16 and the club stayed up that season. Even with the hard run AFCB have in December, I would expect them to pick up more than a point to go into the New Year n more than 20 points.

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So perhaps the poor start is starting to be ironed out and it is not too late for AFCB to not only catch their best finish but surpass it. What AFCB can't expect is any favours from teams above them punishing any of the struggling teams - Watford's penalty miss against Everton still feels like a big blow to the Cherries!

Other news
There's a bit of a dilemma over whether to watch the England or Rep Ireland game tonight, but hopefully there will be a Bournemouth player in both games.

Wins are of great need now for AFCB

Looking at where AFCB would probably like to be come half way through the season there is much work to be done on the pitch. The next 10 games will decide if the Cherries can be confident of pulling away from the relegation zone or if they will become one of the favourites to go down. I estimate that the team needs to win as many as five games out of the next 10 to get back on track by almost the mid-way period of the season.

Bournemouth have to try and get back in play with some
wins in their next few games no matter who the opposition are.

By then AFCB will have played 17 games and a points total of 19 points would be something that would give encouragement to their top flight survival. But if the Cherries are well below this kind of total by the time they get to play Man Utd away, it will be tough for them to recover as they will have to hit even better form to get out of trouble. At the start of each season we know that 10 wins and 10 draws will keep you up, in all but the most extreme of seasons, but AFCB have to break things down and target small amount of games to get near to that total.

The Huddersfield, Burnley and Southampton home games will be critical in any run and Swansea and Crustal Palace remain in the bottom few teams when AFCB play them away they will be two other matches that will be very important to pick up all three points in. But it will of course be valuable if the team can get anything when they play Spurs and Chelsea, while even draws against Stoke and Newcastle would be good points to accumulate.

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The road ahead is not going to be simple now and Eddie Howe has already said that he does not want a mountain to climb, but the poor start has already made things difficult. The comfort at the moment is that AFCB are only one win away from getting out of the relegation zone, but AFCB can't reply on other results going for them. They need to find a way to get wins fast now if they want to stay in this league.

In other news, Harry Arter played 77 minutes of Republic of Ireland's World Cup final group game against Wales and played a part in dummying the ball when McCean scored Ireland's winner on 56 minutes.Now Ireland await who they'll get n the two-leg play-offs.

Table makes happier viewing now

Perhaps more shooting, less thinking
is required by Matt Tubbs

It's all to play for now. The League One Table is starting to take shape as the final games close in on us. Compared to AFCB's position just a few weeks ago when they had slipped out of the top six, they are now virtually guaranteed a play-off place.

Those who said we have no chance of automatic promotion now sit a little more uneasy in their seats as the chasing pack with games in hand suddenly can't afford to drop many more points or they will be left in Doncaster and AFCB's wake.

Much of the Cherries recent success has been due to the phenomenal scoring form of Brett Pitman. A fellow Bournemouth supporter mentioned to me that he would have to play and score in a few of the matches at the start of next season if he was to catch Jermain Dofoe's record of 10 goals in 10 games for AFCB, but he could do it if we went through the play-offs. I don't suppose that is on Brett's mind at the moment. I am sure he would just want the team to keep winning no matter where the goals come from right now.

I have to say that while Tubbs did set up Brett's goal against Notts County with a nice lay-off before the strike, some of his work probably did go largely unnoticed. Unless you get on the score sheet as a striker people are quick to say you did not play well. I only think that sometimes Tubbs could have made a few better decisions but considering he has two assists from his last two games he has done well enough. The running power of Lewis Grabban though seems preferable to me.

All of a sudden the Cherries have closed the goal difference gap with Sheffield Utd and are only just behind Doncaster in terms of goal difference. The points situation is a bit different with Doncaster two points ahead and having a game in hand. It seems that Bournemouth and Doncaster can't stop winning. The indifferent form of Sheffield, Brentford and Swindon has seen Yeovil leap into third place which I doubt many would have predicted. It's all bubbling up quite nicely.

AFCB players celebrate their win over Notts County

The teams that are potentially in danger of missing out of the play-offs on current form are Tranmere with just three points in their last six games and Swindon who have secured six points from their last six matches. Walsall's recent run of form of 10 points from their last six could see them muscle in on a top six finish and they would certainly be a danger team if AFCB had to play them again to win promotion.

There is only two days left to pick your top three teams to be promoted to the Championship this season. While Bournemouth, Doncaster and Sheffield Utd are currently your picks at least one of these teams will be in the play-offs, so don't think it's all over yet.